Dynamism, contribution of India's youth vital to achieving SDGs: Envoy P Harish

United Nations: The dynamism and contribution of India’s vast youth is “vital” towards the country’s development, green energy transition and achieving the sustainable development goals (SDG), Delhi’s envoy to the United Nations said.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish was addressing the 8th Annual 1M1B Activate Impact Summit, organised by the UN Department of Global Communications associated NGO ‘1M1B’ (One Million for One Billion) with the support of the Civil Society Unit, DGC Thursday.

“You, young people, are the future. You have to be closely working together not only to be part of the governance of the country, but also as part of our development pathways and enabling a green energy transition, meeting of Sustainable Development Goals, meeting the 2030 targets. In each one of these activities, your dynamism, your contribution is vital,” Harish said.

In his keynote address at the summit, attended by Indian youth leaders from various fields as well as UN officials and civil society members, Harish described India’s youth as “change makers" and lauded their "significant” innovations and initiatives in their communities and educational institutions that have helped bring purposeful change, including in the realm of climate action.

“As change makers, you have made and impacted your communities but do remember at a global level, what we also strive for is climate justice and climate equity. Developing countries, and India included, have not been part of the problem. Yet, we are part of the solution,” he said.

Harish added that "we live in a period of exciting opportunities, but also huge challenges".

“We have a multilateral system that is exactly not fit for purpose to face today's challenges. India continues, along with friends and partners, to call for greater reforms of the UN system, including in the Security Council, and revitalisation of the UN General Assembly, so that we have a United Nations that our citizens and the peoples of the world need and seek,” he said.

What is needed today is an organisation that is not stuck in the realities of 1945 but more attuned to the current challenges and opportunities, Harish said.

“As young citizens, you have the optimism of youth. For a country of 1.4 billion, we have a majority of our population who are young, who are less than 35 years of age,” he said.

Harish underscored that India remains committed to multilateralism “because this is the only solution for today's problems.” He encouraged the young audience at the event to have “much greater engagement, not only with our governance in the country, not only with the development process within our country but also with global issues, global problems and how to fashion global solutions.” Founder of 1M1B Manav Subodh said in his address that its programme ‘AI for India 2047’, the year when the country would mark 100 years of its independence, will showcase the "talent of India, which will be part of the workforce at that time. 1M1B is working with these young people who will be shaping the future of India and the world." Subodh added that due to a partnership between the Telangana government, 1M1B and the UN, a few students from the state have been given the opportunity to travel for the first time outside the country and showcase their efforts at the world body’s headquarters.

At the summit, 25 change makers from India showcased transformative SDG-related projects on topics such as clean water, quality education, health and inequality. The ‘Global Climate Action Movement '1.5 Matters’ was launched by 1M1B on the occasion. Its mission is to develop a climate talent pipeline of 10 million young professionals and mobilize 1,000 businesses to accelerate net-zero goals.

A youth declaration was also made at the summit that said, “Every student, in every classroom, in every school, in every country knows the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and takes at least one action to help fulfill them. With all of us together, we can and will create a new future for the world.” The summit was also addressed by the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the UN Environment Programme Jamil Ahmad, Deputy Director and Chief of Partnerships and Global Engagement at the United Nations Robert Skinner, Chief of NGO Branch, UN ECOSOC Wook-Jin Chang and IBM’s Vice President and Chief Impact Officer Justina Nixon-Saintil. Its theme was ‘1.5 Matters, Net Zero acceleration leveraging AI and Green Skills’.

Founded in 2014, 1M1B is a UN-accredited youth-focused organisation with a mission to empower a million youth leaders to impact a billion lives. The organisation focuses on equipping young leaders with skills in AI, digital technologies, problem-solving, and collaboration, which it says are essential for the jobs of the future.

Till date, 1M1B has impacted over 7,00,000 young individuals, trained 5,00,000 teachers and has a presence in 25,000 colleges and universities. The organisation has facilitated 6,000 job opportunities in India and its programmes foster innovation and human-centred leadership while focusing on areas like green skilling, digital citizenship, AI for social good and sustainability, it said.